Australia's Science Forum

Hi All,
I need your opinions again. I am so grateful this forum is available to ask !!!
We are the proud users of a beaut new Corrosives cupboard only a little more than a year old, costing over $1,000. We keep our acids here - hydrochloric, nitric, sulfuric, acetic as well as small amounts of formic, phosphoric, etc.
The ol' Hydrochloric acid is at it again and there are already rust etchings on the powder? coating. Our old corrosive cupboard held up for about 10 years before it became too dangerous and grotty to use.
Is this damage avoidable in any way or do we just grit our teeth and put up with it??
Cheers,
~Robyn

Hi Robyn,
Our cupboard shelves are made of melamine, and are sealed all around.They look in good condition, but I am unsure how old they are, as I have only been here a year. I have however, just started using spray fish oil (yuk!) on the hinges and screws, recommended to me by another labbie.It is available at most cheap shops in the automotive section.
Cheers,
Lisa

Dear Labman,
great idea!
will get some fish oil on my next outing! It must help!
Thanks,
~Robyn

Make sure you get the odourless tin of fish oil if you can! Fishoil works great for preventing the stains but unless you want you chem store to smell like an old fishermans jumper for weeks after applying it steer clear of it and use parrafin.

Thank you Richard, all sounds very worthwhile
Have a great weekend,
Cheers,
~Robyn

hi,
Acids, except nitric, should be stored in an acid cabinet, separate from other inorganic chemicals. Store nitric acid away from other acids unless the acid cabinet provides a separate compartment for nitric.

Hi All,

Everyone who has responded to the posts have got the best answer here I think,

Although you could reduce the amount of fuming which happens to some acids the best way to reduce the damaging effects would be to use a barrier against the problem fumes (that being Fish Oil based).

Although periodically you could inspect the bottles/containers and wipe them over to reduce the amount of build up of permeable acidic fumes through the container, the problem still arrises because this can be quite tedious.

Plastic bottles will allow some permeation through the pores of the plastic which then remains on the surface of the bottles, which in turn can contribute to the fuming effect in warmer conditions.

Therefore a preventative measure is a better choice. Fish Oil....

Cheers.

Robb.....

Hi everyone,
Please excuse my ignorance, but why cant nitric be stored with other acids, I thought it just had to be seperate from acetic acid not unable to be with others in the corrosives cupboard. So where does everyone store their nitric?
cheers
Lisa

hi Lis,
Nitric acid is oxidiser at room temperature therefore very reactive. As you said, it should be kept away from acetic acid which is combustible liquid. Nitric should be stored away from others in a separate tray.
Segregate oxidizing acids (nitric, perchloric, chromic acid, chromerge) from organic acids (acetic, formic, etc.) to prevent fires. Many organic acids are also classified as combustible liquids so they should be stored inside flammable cabinets.

Hi all

So what do you do when you have one "flammables" cupboard and one "oxidising" cupboard within the chemical stoarge room? Is nitric acid better just on the shelves instead of in the cupboard with HCL , acetic etc? And what about diluted stock solutions? Is it OK to have them all on the shelves together? As a small school, we only have small quatities of each of the chemicals and a limited space to store things.

Kathryn

Hi everyone
Was this question too complicated? I thought someone may have had a suggestion?
kathryn

Kathryn,

Diluted solutions should be OK in their bottles on the shelves. I'm also in a small school with limited stocks of chemicals. Sometimes it's easier to just stick your fingers in your ears and go "LA LA LA" than actually try to solve the problem of how to store everything separately. However, my nitric lives by it self in the back corner of one of my de-comissioned fume hoods.

Cheers, K